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| Knightley wet from his paddling pool as a 16 week old youngster, cooling off from the summer heat. A photo in a million. |
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| Knightley blowing bubbles with his nose many many months ago, 16 weeks old. Still has his puppy fluff. |
If anyone else out there has any further ideas for birthday presents for my gorgeous boy, let me know! I think after being retired before our lives together have barely started, he deserves it. Not that he'll really understand.... just he won't get to go much anywhere to exciting places anymore.
One more thing - if any of you out there have become attached to Knightley over the weeks or months of reading this blog and wish to share in his birthday, we would welcome birthday presents. Or, if you would rather, you could contribute to some puppy toys for the new puppy when it comes! We weren't expecting the expense of another dog, and simple things like toys would be appreciated by Knightley and the yet to be named (and found) pup! So, if you are interested in sending anything to us, and it doesn't matter if it gets here a little late for Knightley's birthday (28th July), contact me via either:
- info (at) ozworkingdogs (dot) com (dot) au or
- downunder (dot) assistance (dot) dog (at) gmail (dot) com
You don't have to by any means, only if you want to!
Anyway, Knightley's limp has improved vastly. Obviously despite the severity of his hip dysplasia we will have at least some time in hand without a default daily limp - I was worried for a bit there that the x-rays had set off something more permanent! We had a lot of fun together in the backyard this morning, and I let him do quite a bit of running around and barely saw him favouring that hip at all. It is important that he doesn't lose his fitness and muscle bulk, as that will make his hip problems worse. So there is a fine line to be found between letting him run, and stopping him before he makes himself lame. Today I rode the line perfectly and he was happy to come inside and sleep after our fun together. I do wonder what having another puppy will be like. It will change the dynamics completely. I have never had more than one dog, and it does make me wonder whether my bond with this second puppy will be as close as it has become with Knightley - as when Knightley was a baby he had only me to play with, but with a new puppy, Knightley will always be there to bond with first.... and only then me. I will have to make sure we have a good deal of time together alone.
The breeder I said I emailed isn't going to be breeding another litter for a while yet, so I have emailed another two breeders, one of which has a litter who is four weeks old now - with 7 males. I don't know how many of those males are still available, but it one of the breeders I originally emailed, and if you have possibly read my very early posts, it was the breeder of the bitch whose mating didn't "take"..... to be polite, heh. Looking on the online Golden Retriever breeding database, k9data.com, the hip score background of sire and dam are pretty good - back several generations it is all good or excellent, but a few more back there are some worse scores. Despite having mostly really good scores my experience with Knightley tells me that you just don't know what recessives are still lurking in breeding dog's genes. Hip dysplasia is hard to breed out but it can be done - it was done very successfully with racing greyhounds. I really think they need to change to PennHip even though it is a lot more expensive and very rare here in Australia. BVA is obviously just not doing the job, sigh.
Anyway, if the breeder with the 7 males happened to have a suitable boy, which would be relatively unlikely but possible.... it would be coming home mid August. As for a name for a new male puppy, I have absolutely no idea. From early on I wanted to call a puppy Knightley as I always liked the character Mr Knightley from Emma, and while I also very much like Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice I very much doubt the hubby will stand for that!! It needs to be something that sounds quite different from Knightley to avoid problems when you call the names out. So, I need my thinking cap on. You can't quite make up your mind until you've met the dog though, can you?
I've been thinking a lot about how all our plans for Knightley have changed, and I have decided something... if it is possible that is. From the beginning I intended that if Knightley had the temperament for it, and they let me do it with my mobility problems, I wanted to do therapy dog training with him. He definitely can't be a mobility assistance dog with his hips the way they are, but perhaps he could be a therapy dog?? I think he'd be really good at it, he is such a friendly, happy dog that people just can't help smiling when they see him.... anyone would cheer up to see that golden grin. The local training people don't allow dogs to start therapy dog training until they are 18 months old, so I think I shall concentrate on training towards that, and also concentrate on getting a good joint supplement regime going to stabilise his hip. It makes me feel significantly more positive that we could work towards being a therapy dog for Knightley. It means he won't get to miss out on all the dreams I had for him. In many ways he will bring as much hope and happiness this way, it just won't be just to me.
Anyway, I had a rather nasty fall today. Thankfully I was inside, but even so it was pretty awful. Somehow I tripped over my own feet.... I swear something makes me clumsy these days. I fell down really hard almost full length, landing on the knee of my 'bad' leg and bruising it pretty badly, jarring my badhip, bruising the other leg and hitting my head hard. It was such a shock I just lay there and gasped for a while, but Knightley was a bit confused.... I think he was wondering if it was some sort of new game, but at the same time he seemed worried. Eventually I managed to pull myself up and inspect the sore bits which are swollen but not broken, and I think then he realised I wasn't playing but was serious and he became all licky and clingy.... trying to even lick my knee .... (owwwww). He crawled onto my lap after I hobbled off to get ice and seemed to try to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. What a good pup he is. Expecting my knee to be very sore indeed tomorrow. :(
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| Knightley in a large tracking harness, also with the euro leash which does everything you would ever wish a leash to do!! |
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| My new cape with pockets is now for sale. |
So, despite everything life does continue.
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